ENHANCING RESILIENCE TO CLIMATE CHANGE

To improve the livelihoods of vulnerable grassroots communities in central Zambia by creating awareness of the causes, impacts and solutions to climate change.

Climate change has a devastating impact on the livelihoods of the rural grassroots communities in Zambia. There is evidence to show that Zambia has experienced a number of climate induced hazards over several decades. The most serious climatic hazards have been droughts and seasonal floods, and extreme temperatures. Some of these have increased in frequency and intensity and this has impacted on food and water security affecting the livelihoods of the grassroots communities.

With the funding from Artists’ Project Earth, PELUM will build on work already being implemented in central Zambia on climate change and food security. PELUM will engage a community based theater group who live within the communities and have real experiences with the effects of climate change. The Theater group will be supported by a professional expert in theatre for development of the concept and script which will be used to pass on the messages on climate change to communities, looking at causes, impacts and how best communities can adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change.

PELUM intends to work with the women groups and the youth clubs as they are the ones responsible in most cases on issues to do with food security in the home. The information will be disseminated during public gatherings such as shows and through community radio stations. The local language will be mainly used.

Rainwater harvesting – an adaptive technologyAdaptive technologies such as rain water harvesting, moisture preservation, inter cropping, Agroforestry and biodiversity will be major themes to the engagements. Bad practices such as charcoal burning and veld fires will also be highlighted in the script. The community will be engaged in developing the concepts from script writing to implementation for ownership of the project, and to open up for ideas.

Community radio stations will be used as a means of information dissemination and awareness-raising with other communities within Zambia. Through this project we expect to reach-out directly to over 2,500 households in one district, and more than 15,000 households using the community radio station. The project will help inform grassroots communities about the effects of climate change and how best to cope.

“We are really excited about receiving the funds and we look forward to beginning our activities”.